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Episode 185: Making Time Work for You

On Today’s Show

Author Hugh Culver shares some specific and actionable productivity tips from his book Give Me a Break: The Art of Making Time Work for You. Hugh helps you carve more time out of your day, reduce stress by working with the natural rhythms of your mind and body, and get more done through proper planning and organization.

1 Simple Thing Actions:

1 Simple Thing Action:
Block 15 minutes to plan the next week. Get everything in one place instead of using multiple Post-It notes, calendars, apps, etc. Then divide it into groups:

Life Plan: Where do I want to be?Year Goals: What are my goals for 2015?Flight Plan For The Week: No more than about a dozen things.Month (ex. April): Other things I want to work on in April.Someday: Your holding pot.

Use this model to list everything in your mind that’s an idea, a suggestion from others, or anything that ends up being a “To-Do” and list it in one of those buckets. If it does not fit under any of the headings, then it’s not yet a priority and should be out of mind.

1 Simple Thing Action:
The first step is to create the boundaries. Look for a stretch of time that ideally occurs every day when you want to be strategically unavailable. The second is to get into a habit of naturally creating appointments with yourself and place them on your calendar.

There are three things to consider when deciding to make that appointment.
1) Would I procrastinate about this?
2) Is it strategic in nature? Does this move the project forward?
3) Does it impact other people?

1 Simple Thing Action:
When it comes to batching, look at repetitive tasks you can do all at once. Specifically look for anything to do with paperwork, filing, mail, invoicing, returning phone calls or email. Batch those together, claw back those 10 minutes a day, and then use that new found time wisely.

1 Simple Thing Action:
Take more breaks throughout the day. Also create that SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Take a repetitive process you use in your business and write all the steps for it. Then begin to explore your options for online outsourcing.